Aaron replied to Moses, “Today they sacrificed their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, but such things as this have happened to me. Would the LORD have been pleased if I had eaten the sin offering today?” – Leviticus 10:19

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 25, 2015): Leviticus 10

In 1963, Leslie Gore released her hit song “It’s My Party.” The song itself tells the story of a teenage girl whose boyfriend Johnny disappears on the night of her birthday party. When Johnny reappears, the young girl finds that she has been replaced by someone else. All in a sudden the party, which should have been a happy occasion, becomes a sad one – and a reason to cry. The phrase “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” has entered into pop culture as a phrase that describes any humiliating event that occurs at an occasion which should have been a happy one – a sad experience in what should have been a happy situation.

Aaron’s oldest sons, Nadab and Abihu, have died. They died because of their own disobedience of God’s Law. Essentially they did not give the respect to the Tabernacle of God that this holy place deserved; and as a result of their sin, their lives ended. And because Nadab and Abihu died as a direct result of their sin, Aaron and his sons were forbidden to mourn the deaths.

So a sin offering was offered, and the appropriate parts of the sin offering were burned as the Mosaic Law demanded. But Moses instructed that the rest of the sin offering was to be eaten by Aaron and his sons, Eleazar and Ithmar. But when Moses asks Eleazar and Ithmar if they consumed the offering, the sons of Aaron admit that they burned the whole offering and that none of it was eaten by the three priests. Moses is not amused. For the prophet, this is nothing more than further disobedience of God by the family of the High Priest.

But Aaron steps up for his sons. The sin offering was supposed to be consumed by the priests with joy and thanksgiving – after all, the sacrifice erased the sin of the people, it was a vehicle of God’s grace. But in this moment, that just wasn’t possible. Even though they were forbidden to mourn the deaths of Nadab and Abihu publicly, they couldn’t help mourn the deaths of these sons and brothers in their heart. And God knows the state of the heart. So Aaron’s question is simply this – would it be right to eat a meal that is supposed to be consumed with joy when there was simply no joy in their hearts. They might be able to put on a happy face for the people, but inside the mourning was very real. And because of this, the offering was not consumed.

But essentially Aaron is telling his brother exactly what Leslie Gore told us in 1963 – It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to. When bad things happen, sometimes there is simply no other choice.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Leviticus 11